F. JOHNSON. 103 mg to the opinion of some,. was, that Johnson excom- municatedAinsworth and his part of the church, and that Ainsworth returned the compliment upon the opposite party : but for the latter charge there appears no founda- tion.t On the contrary, Mr. John Cotton, who was no Brownist, but was contemporary with Ainsworth and Johnson, and lived among those who had been concerned in this affair, observes, " That Mr. Ainsworth and his company did not excommunicate Mr. Johnson and his party, but withdrew, when they could no longer live peaceably together."t Ainsworth and those who adhered to him, held a separate assemblyat Amsterdam, and the two congregations were afterwards distinguished as Johnsonian and Ainsworthian Brownists.§ But Mr. Johnson and his friends, at length, removed to Embden, where he.afterwards died, and his congregation dissolved. In the year 1599, there was a long controversy carried on in print, between"Mr. Johnson and Mr. Henry Jacob, con- cerning certain tenets of the Brownists. The same year the whole was collected and published at Middleburgh, by Mr. Johnson, consistingof ninety-one quarto pages, entitled, "A. Defence of the Churches and Ministry of England, against the reasons and objections of Maister Francis Johnson, and others of the separation commonly called Brownists. In two Treatises. Published especially forthe benefit of those in these parts of the Low Countries." In one of these treatises is a recapitulation of all the chief objectionsraised by the Brownists against the church of England ; from which we may gather a much more complete account of their tenets and doctrines, than from any thing else ever published ; and it is truly authentic, because it was written by one of the leaders of the Brownists. It is called, AntichristianAbominations yet retained in England," and enumerates the following particulars : " The confusion of all sorts of people in the body of a sailie's Dissuasive, p. 15. + Life of Ainsworth, p. 31, 33. t Cotton's Congregational Churches, p. 6. 1) The Johnsonian Brownists commenced a suit, it is said, against the Ainsworthians, for the meeting-house granted to the Brownists at Amster- dam. The Johnsonians pleaded that it belonged to them, being the ancient Brownists, to whom it was originally given: but the Ainsworthians, on the contrary, pleaded it was theirs, seeing they were the true Brownists, holding the ancient faith of that church, from which the Jolmsonians are said to have apostatized. How far this account is correct, or how this di-Spate 'was. ended, we are not able to learn. -Pager's Heresiography, p. 67, 68.
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